A Novel Method for Characterizing Stick-Slip Behavior of Metal-Polymer Pairs Based on Triboelectrification

Stick-slip (SS) behavior is a common phenomenon in friction systems that can lead to component damage and functional failure. The key to understanding SS behavior deeply is to accurately acquire its characteristic information at the sliding interface. To fulfill this, a novel method for characterizing SS behavior is proposed based on triboelectrification (TE). Verification experiments were conducted on a ball-on-disc tribometer, and the results showed that the time-domain waveform of the triboelectrical signal exhibits distinct sawtooth peaks (SPs) characteristic, which clearly define the stick and slip phases. Furthermore, frequency-domain analysis reveals that sideband frequency components appear around the main frequency in the spectrum of the triboelectric signal under SS friction, indicating the nonlinear nature of the SS behavior and confirming the feasibility of this method. Therefore, the triboelectric signal can be used to characterize the SS behavior. This study promotes the development of TE-based triboelectric sensors for monitoring the SS behavior.